Raw Smoked Chipotle Taco Sauce

This sauce pairs beautifully with my Raw Lentil Tacos and is a great alternative to using Raw Sour Cream… not that there is anything wrong with Raw Sour Cream… :) This recipe just kicks any dish up a notch.

My favorite ingredient in this sauce is the Smoked Chipotle. I just love its smoky, sweet, and spicy flavor. Simply made from dried, smoked jalapeño chiles which are ground into a fine powder. For an interesting tid-bit of info… it takes 10 pounds of fresh peppers to make one pound of dried Chipotles. Just in case this shows up in your next game of Trivia, you will be thanking me. :) If you don’t have this amazing spice in your pantry, you can use smoked paprika instead, but the taste will not be quite the same . Enjoy!

Ingredients: yields 2 cups

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup red pepper

1 Tbsp raw apple cider vinegar

1 cup raw cashews, soaked 2+ hours

2 Tbsp nutritional yeast

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 tsp smoked chipotle powder

1/4 tsp chili powder

Preparation:

It is important to soak the cashews for at least 2 hours. This will soften them which will help you acheive a creamy sauce. After soaking, drain and rinse.

Use a high-powered blender and add the ingredients in the following order; water, red pepper, vinegar, cashews, nutritional yeast, cumin, salt, black pepper, chipotle, and chili powder. Blend until the sauce is creamy and grit free.

Keep the sauce stored in the fridge in an airtight container. Should last 5-7 days.

This is absolutely the best sauce. I have made it several times for tacos and used the rest for whatever I felt like. Today I made it and mixed with spinach and raw courgette spaghetti and added sundried tomatoes and some raw sundried olives. Divine!